Ziegfeld Theatre (1927)

This article is about the 1927 Broadway theater. For the 1969 movie theater, see Ziegfeld Theatre.
Sculpture fragment from the Ziegfeld Theatre facade.

The Ziegfeld Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 1341 Sixth Avenue, corner of 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1927 and, despite public protests, was razed in 1966. A second theater of the same name, named in honor of the original, was built in 1969 and is located at 141 West 54th Street in Manhattan. A large single screen movie theater, the last of its kind in Manhattan, it remains in operation today.

History

The original Ziegfeld Theatre was named for the famed Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., who built it with financial backing from William Randolph Hearst. Designed by Joseph Urban and Thomas W. Lamb, it opened on February 2, 1927 with the musical Rio Rita. The Ziegfeld's second show was also its most famous, Jerome Kern's landmark musical Show Boat which opened on December 27, 1927 and ran for 572 performances.

Due to the decline in new Broadway shows during the Great Depression, the theater became the Loew's Ziegfeld in 1933 and operated as a movie theater until showman Billy Rose bought it in 1944.

NBC leased the Ziegfeld for use as a television studio from 1955 to 1963. The Perry Como Show was broadcast from the theater beginning in 1956. It was also used to present the televised Emmy Awards program in 1959 and 1961.

In 1963 the Ziegfeld reopened as a legitimate Broadway theater. This was short-lived however, as Rose began to assemble abutting properties for a new real estate project.[1] The musical Anya (opened November 29, 1965 for 16 performances) was the last musical to play at the theater, which was torn down in 1966 to make way for a skyscraper, the Fisher Bros. Burlington House (later renamed the Alliance Capital, and then Alliance Bernstein building.)[2]

A fragment of the Joseph Urban facade, a female head, can be seen in front of the private home at 52 East 80th Street.[3] The box from the cornerstone and its contents are held by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Notable Broadway premieres

Notable Broadway revivals

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "News of Realty Rose Seeks Club". New York Times. 6 May 1965.
  2. ↑ "Ziegfeld Theater Will Be Razed for a Skyscraper". New York Times. August 5, 1966.
  3. ↑ Gray, Christopher (14 November 2004). "An Architect's Evocative Legacy of Fantasy and Drama". New York Times.

External links

Coordinates: 40°45′45″N 73°58′43″W / 40.76256°N 73.97873°W